Hero (film)

Hero ({{zh-cp|c=英雄|p=yīng xióng}}) is a film first released in China on October 24 2002. It was both the most expensive and the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese cinema history. It hit US theaters on August 27 2004 despite the fact that the Asian DVD had already been available for over a year. It became the top-grossing film in the first week of its US debut, at US$18M, and continued to lead the US box office in its second week at US$11.5M. It fell to the fourth place in its third week at US$4.4M. It set a record as the highest-grossing opening-weekend foreign language film in the United States. The US edition of the DVD, with Mandarin, English, and French sound tracks, was released on November 30 2004.

Plot

The film is set during the Warring States Period. It tells the story of assassination attempts on the king of Qin by legendary warriors who seek revenge for his subjugation of their nation. The king justifies his actions in the cause of unifying China, using the fact that there is no common writing system among the people to illustrate this. In the text at the end of the film, the king is identified as Ying Zheng, who in 221 BC did indeed unite China under his command and become its first emperor, Qin Shi Huang (lived 259-210 BC; reigned 246–210 BC).

Related Topics:
Warring States Period - Qin - 221 BC - Qin Shi Huang - 259 - 210 BC - 246

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The film was Zhang's first attempt at this genre, and it uses a highly unusual structure. Conflicting versions of the events are recounted by different characters, in a structure reminiscent of Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950). Each section uses a different color scheme depending on the narrator, similar to how different color schemes are adopted in different rooms in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; Zhang's films often feature rigorous color schemes.

Related Topics:
Zhang - Rashomon - 1950 - Peter Greenaway - The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

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An interesting point is that, as the film progresses and more versions of the same story are presented, the characters of the narration improve with each new telling. They grow more intelligent, insightful, and thoughtful as the plot progresses. At the start of the film, during the first story told by the Nameless Hero, Broken Sword is portrayed as a mere brawler and Flying Snow seems ruled by her thoughts of the past and her hatred/love of Broken Sword; at the conclusion of the film, in the Nameless Hero's final story and the scenes after his death, Broken Sword is presented as a deeply contemplative and forward-thinking warrior and Flying Snow is a woman who feels the weight of their entire civilization resting upon her shoulders in addition to her own feelings. They are forced to grapple with complex issues that force them to think rather than fight, and they must weigh their own lives against their entire nation.

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The film has a tragic structure; its six main characters come to realize that China's unity depends on their own decisions and actions. This feeling of patriotic responsibility conflicts with their own personal desires for revenge, and with their relationships to each other. Ultimately, the film concludes as a classic tragedy.

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In China, an extended edition of Hero with eight minutes of additional footage was released. It features minor differences in story, music, and fight sequences to those of the theatrical version's.

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